Campbell's (Chris Collins)

Expiration Dates

It's been a week.

"Will you two just work this out, please?"

Though uttered by different people, both in different areas of the same city, one sentiment was shared: to get Chris and Naomi to stop fighting.

As she was pestered in their university library, Naomi Patridge closed down her laptop screen as she looked at her best friend, Paige with a look that seemed a mix of disgust and disbelief,

"Does it look like I still want to work it out?"

As they parked in their garage from running a few errands, Chris Collins couldn't be bothered to pull down the wayfarers he'd been wearing at the sound of the words uttered by his brother, Crawford. Instead, behind the wayfarers, he'd rolled his eyes at his brother as he replied,

"Bro, I seriously can't deal with this anymore."

The war between the two began last week — and believe it or not, on Skype. They had been making their way around Naomi's rather occupied schedule as there was going to be an exhibit that would be held in her university and being part of the graphic design students, she had a major role to play in putting it together. Usually, they would Skype nightly — Chris would even stay up with her sometimes; he didn't mind the ungodly hours anyway because he believed that sleep was a waste of time.

But they'd been making their way around this tight schedule for about two weeks and it was on that fateful night that both their frustrations had been vented out to one another in what they hoped to be a lighthearted Skype call.

"You said you had 'no time' for anything lately and now, you're on Facebook?" said Chris, rather annoyed that Naomi had chosen to open the notification rather than his remark.

"You know, it's a miracle that I still Skype with you even after you've shown me the Unfriended trailer."

"I feel like I lose my place in your life when you do those kinds of things. You literally have more time for anything else but me."

"And I feel like you're in no position to say that considering the good amount of time you've spent in DigiTour." frowned Naomi, "I never complained once, Christian."

"What, it's not like you would've flown to America just to tell me that, right? In fact, it's not like you'd ever say it to my face anyway" scoffed Chris in frustration, "You'd just pull the cold shoulder and I have to find a way to appease the high and mighty Naomi."

"Boohoo, my girlfriend doesn't have time to talk to me because it's the WEEK OF THE BIGGEST, MOST IMPORTANT EVENT SHE HAS AT UNIVERSITY... Did you forget we live different lives with different schedules?" mocked Naomi in disbelief, "I'm at university and you're...I'm sorry, what do you do again other than talk to a camera?"

"Well, it's a lot better than talking to you." he replied, already angry, "What's the difference between having you as a girlfriend right now and a camera? Oh right, the camera only focuses on one thing!"

"If that's the case, I really feel like blurring you out of the shot right now!"

"Then that's no problem, considering you find other subjects more interesting anyway!"

"Oh my gosh...this is about me spending time with Sean, isn't it?" frowned Naomi all the more, as she referred to her classmate while piecing together the pieces, "Are you really stooping this low? I'm obliged to work with him... Christian, I barely know the guy."

Looking up at him through the screen, after a lengthy pause she added,

"And I'm starting to feel like I barely know you now too."

Returning to the present situation with Chris, as he and his brother arrived home, he couldn't help but wonder even a little if she had shown little concern to the fact today was their anniversary.

"Has she called?"

Looking up from her phone with a pitiful expression, his younger sister, Karisma gave a light shake of her head, "Sorry."

He shrugged; despite circumstances, today needed some commemoration. And as he almost immediately grabbed Crawford's keys, he knew just where to find the right party supplies.

Already on her way home from a tiring day at school, Naomi couldn't help but check her phone and look for any signs of a possible treaty between her and Chris. It was their anniversary after all; and though her attempts were futile, it didn't mean her spirits were.

Making a quick turn, she drove to the one place she knew would allow her to celebrate this day despite being on her own and, coincidentally, the same place Chris had gone as well.

The very convenience store they'd met.